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Defense is priority for Cavaliers coach
By Patrick McManamon
Beacon Journal sports columnist
Published on Tuesday, Sep 30, 2008
INDEPENDENCE: Trust will be a big word for the Cavaliers this season.
It was a big concept for the Boston Celtics in last season's championship drive. Not because Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce trusted each other, but because they trusted the others on the team.
Doc Rivers said that was the key to the Celtics uniting to win a title.
So it is with the Cavs, who have to learn to trust everyone on the team, not only LeBron James.
Coach Mike Brown referred to trust in general terms at a news conference last week. He said that this season he wants to ''show our players that I believe in them on both of ends of the floor, that I trust them on both ends of the floor no matter who's out there.''
Translation: He does not always want James to feel he has to do everything.
The reason: The team around James is strong enough that he should not have to do everything.
James finally has a point guard, Mo Williams, who can shoot, drive and pass.
He has another guard he grew to respect in Delonte West, as well as Daniel Gibson, one of his preferred teammates.
He has other shooters, he has rebounders and he has Zydrunas Ilgauskas in the middle with some other ''bigs.'' (Why are guards not called ''smalls''?)
The Cavs start training camp, owner Dan Gilbert said, with the ''best feeling in the three or four summers that we've been involved. By far.''
For good reason.
Every player at the team's media day Monday talked championship.
Williams seemed energized enough to power a rocket.
But a key for this team will be James understanding he does not need to be the one always handling the ball, the one scoring, the one creating.
More important, he does not need to be the guy pulling the ball out with 10 or 12 seconds left on the shot clock and dribbling the time down to find a shot or pass.
He can trust that his teammates will run the offense.
He can trust that they will move without the ball.
He can trust they can score.
And he can also trust they will respect the fact he is the unquestioned leader of this team.
James and his teammates seem to have that bond thing going pretty well. A bunch of them already have played a touch football game at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School.
The way James spoke Monday, he clearly understands the talent he has around him.
So much is made of the Cavs' offensive system — what it is and what it isn't.
Rest assured there is a system, there are plays and there are times when the team runs the offense.
But Brown and General Manager Danny Ferry reiterated that the Cavs always will be a defense-first team.
Brown also admitted that working on the offensive side was new to him when he became the Cavs' coach. Then, too, he had James, the game's best player and best passer.
So he gave James a lot of leeway on offense. That's why James sometimes took charge of a play by stopping the play and doing his thing. Brown gave him that freedom.
The logic: James is better than most, so he usually is going to come up with the right play. It's not correct to say James didn't trust or respect his teammates. He just felt his option was the best option. (And there were times it couldn't be argued).
Now, there is enough talent the Cavs should not need that to happen as often as it did a year ago. Brown can call plays for several players, and the Cavs want to trust in the entire team when a key offensive possession arrives.
James' teammates will have to come through the way West came through in Washington when James gave him the ball.
If the players come through, James will feel less of a burden and be more effective at the times when the Cavs do need him. A key moment in the Game 7 loss in Boston happened when Ben Wallace passed up a dunk James had set up to pass the ball to West for a 3-point attempt.
The Cavs remain James' team, and there will always be times he will be called on for the final play. That's different from having him take over on several possessions at varying times of the game.
It now seems the Cavs can put their trust in the entire team, and ask James to share that trust.
If he does, those championship dreams become a little more legitimate.
Patrick McManamon can be reached at pmcmanamon@thebeaconjournal.com. Read his blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/mcmanamon/.
INDEPENDENCE: Trust will be a big word for the Cavaliers this season.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Posted 10:00 AM, 09/30/2008
Question is, can we trust Brown to run a better offense? He supposedly studied an offensive coach last offseason and that didn't work. So we'll see if his studies this offseason pan out. I doubt it. Higher an O coach and stop worrying about your pride. However, we're still winning a championship this year.
Posted 02:05 PM, 10/01/2008
That mortgage charlatan Gilbert is simply brilliant. He has the "best feeling in the three or four summers that we've been involved. By far." I guess he's too busy counting the millions he's losing in his primary business to be able to focus on whether he's been involved during three summers or four. I was unaware that the numbers 3 and 4 were so tough to distinguish. Paging "Sesame Street."
